Richmond City Council Election 2012: Jael P. Myrick

Jael P. Myrick sits in the front row during a candidates forum at Kennedy High School. (Photo by: Erik Reyna)

There wasn’t anything unusual or exciting about the white shirt, gray slacks, black shoes or the red, diamond patterned tie that Jael P. Myrick wore. Even the way he blended in with people didn’t make him seem out of the ordinary.

Myrick is to all appearances a regular guy. But in a field of City Council candidates where many of the big names are part of a deep partisan division, the 27-year-old Myrick hopes his youth and regular-guyness brings a different sensibility to the race. That youth, he believes, gives him an opportunity to better reach the troubled youth in Richmond.

“You guys know it better than anybody, they are causing most of the trouble, it’s young folks, it’s teenagers a lot of the time,“ Myrick said at a recent community meeting held at the Crescent Park Management Office and Multicultural Family Resource Center.

It was the first of three consecutive meetings that evening, and Myrick had his points ready for different audiences and different venues. At a fundraising event held for him by former Contra Costa College President McKinley Williams, he talked about his success in helping get the Officer Brad Moody memorial underpass financed, while the candidate’s forum held in Marina Bay was more of an introduction to those who did not know him.